Hey you! Yes, you. Put down that bloody Nirvana box set! It’s only shamelessly preying on your inexplicable charity towards the dead anyway. Tracks never worthy of release sold on for oodles of mark-up so that Ms Love-Cobain can put Francis Bean through private school without dipping into her prescription fund? Bargain. Or you could just move your gaze to the left in yer music shop racks and find a posthumous boxed collection really worthy of some love. Mansun didn’t alight from this mortal coil in such a dramatic fashion, in fact they whimpered away to nothing with practically nobody watching at all, but then they left plenty behind in the way of unfinished business, rarities and genuinely alternative takes on their tunes – making ‘Kleptomania’ a lovely 3-disc gem, practically essential. It is already reviewed in full on this site, but the ‘lost’ fourth-album sessions are sublime in their angularity. We found out where Chester’s Paul Draper’s head is at as he puts Mansun to bed and waits for delivery of his solo career.
- Where are you now? What can you see?
I’m in my studio looking out over the River Thames. I can see water, trees and birds. - What was the last thing you ate?
2 plumbs, honestly! - What was the last album you bought?
Brian Wilson, Smile, the man is a genius, what can I say. - What was the last movie you saw?
I saw Adaptation on DVD. Very good, the first few lines of dialogue sort of sum things up. - What are you most looking forward to?
Finishing my solo album - What do you hate right now?
X Factor, I caught a bit of it at a mates house and I felt really sorry for the gimps up there. - What was the last thing you liked that you saw on telly?
I don’t watch TV really but the last thing I liked was Little Britain, Bo Selecta - Where or how do you feel most comfortable?
At home, big spliff, phone off the hook, glass of Chateau Neuf Du Pape - What would you class as your most defining moment?
So far leaving the band. I felt free and liberated, like a tampon advert. - What are your plans for tonight?
Going to a mate’s club night in London, I’ll wear me NHS specs to stay incognito.